Seattle breaks heat record; relief expected Tuesday

UPDATE, 10 p.m. | A thunderstorm near Enumclaw produced pea-sized hail and heavy precipitation around 9 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The storm was moving northwest toward the Eastside.

Puget Sound Energy said about 5,200 people are without power in the Redmond and Woodinville areas after an outage likely caused by lightning.

ORIGINAL POST | The temperature in Seattle on Monday was much hotter than normal for this time of year. Twenty degrees hotter, to be exact.

Monday afternoon, meteorologists recorded a record-breaking 96 degrees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport where Seattle’s official weather data is recorded, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record for Aug. 11 was 95 degrees, set in 1977.

The average temperature of this time of year is 76 degrees, meteorologist Jay Albrecht said.

By Tuesday, marine air from the coast and thunderstorms from the southeast will cause the temperature to drop to the mid-80s, Albrecht said. Rain is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures in the mid-70s through the week. The weekend’s forecast is for sunny skies, with temperatures in the mid to upper 70s.

“It’s going to get quite nice once we get through the heat and the thunderstorm activity,” Albrecht said.

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The Today File is a general news blog featuring real-time coverage of Seattle and the Northwest. It is reported by the news staff of The Seattle Times and includes stories from The Associated Press and McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.